Beguiled damsel book 5, p.22
Beguiled (Damsel Book 5), page 22
That was waved away. Mainly so she didn't have to explain that, at the time, she hadn’t understood that was what happened when portals stayed open for too long. It was a better story if she was brave, instead of clueless.
“No worries. You had it. Now, I think I’m handling this revelation pretty well, don’t you, Max?”
The man seemed considering for a moment, then nodded.
“More or less. It isn’t that big of an issue, really. I would have mentioned it earlier, except that I didn’t want to disrupt your training. As it is, we need to get all of you in for advanced escape and evasion. We’re doing a little of that out here, but this is more of a gentle introduction to staying alive, than it is survival training. With more fighting added in, so there’s that. Carl was telling me that each of the kids will have a mentor?”
She bobbed in place a bit, thinking.
“June came up with that part for us. At least, I think that was her. I can’t honestly recall, at this point. Which one are you taking on?” She grinned, since that was heavy handed on a level that was meant to be her teasing the man. It was strange, being related to him. Especially since she’d considered sleeping with him, a few times.
Not in a real way, thankfully. It was more of an idea she’d had in passing, which was probably about her proving to herself she was open minded, not a stuck-up bitch, when it came to accepting other people. She wasn’t sleep with her own uncle open minded, of course. Meaning she could just let that part of things go, now that she knew about it.
The man gave her a very flat look, then shrugged.
“I was thinking I’d work with Liam? I notice that he doesn’t have a power yet?”
Hannah nodded.
“His father isn’t all that certain about this stuff. He’s allowing him to get training, but powers seem to be off the table, so far. Which is a shame, since he’s been cleared for them. I was thinking some kind of healing ability, for him? We need more healers.” She didn’t know why she kept thinking that, but it was sort of important. At least the words kept coming up inside of her, when she thought about what people needed to be able to do.
Rather than acting like it was a foolish idea, Max gave a nod.
“I’ll see if I can work that out, with the family. I agree. We’re in a war, if the early parts of it. We need to see to certain things. Food, healing, shelter… Fuel, too. It sounds off, maybe, but if the energy can be turned off, America will be left crippled. You and the girls seem to have fugitive retrieval in hand. That… What you three did last night probably saved tens of thousands of lives. We need to finish it, but… That was a great start. So, I’ll get with Liam and see if he’s willing to do his part.”
She nodded.
“He’s decent at shooting. A bit weaker with a blade. I don’t know about unarmed. We can do more with survival training for him?”
That got a nod.
“For all of you. In a few months, if we have the time then. E and E first? It can come up in this kind of situation.” The man pulled a folding knife from his coat pocket, having slept in it, that and a pair of jeans, but still didn’t have shoes on. The blade, which seemed sharp, if small, was used to open one of the foil packets of coffee. That was dumped in the bottom of one of the coffee pots, with warm water being poured into it, carefully.
He used his bare hand on the metal handle, which had to burn. If so, he didn’t respond to it at all.
Max spoke, as soon as they all had a cup of coffee. Apparently, it was something sort of like instant. It wasn’t as good as the normal kind, but she drank it straight, regardless. There were no grounds in the bottom, which was a plus.
“We were up late, learning to move in the dark. That was interesting. Military. Is that the plan for the kids here? Not all of them will make good fighters. About half?”
Hannah shook her head.
“I was thinking that they could be whatever they wanted? This is… I don’t really know? It started out as just a way to get a few of my friends some training, or an internship to pad their school records, for college. So much has happened lately, that it just makes sense to get everyone as ready as possible, now. I don’t even know who’s behind this, really. It isn’t Hitoshi and Red Menace, even if we need to take them down.” She needed to make a call, she realized, that day. To warn Red Bitch and her friends that the man was free. True, they might have been in on the whole thing, and just using her, but they might not. In that case, she sort of needed to let them know that hiding might be in order.
The vision of Kincaid nearly punching his way out of the cell, the first one in the High Command’s basement, came to mind again. He wasn’t someone to take lightly. That he might be coming for her made some sense. At the same time, she knew, on a deep level that wasn’t the plan. It reminded her to stay in a trance.
She worked on that, while sipping at her warm beverage. It was bitter, but mild compared to the real thing. Round, in an odd fashion where even the best coffee was normally kind of sharp.
People, slowly, got up, moved to the restrooms and eventually came back, as she sat there, focusing herself. Kara moved from fire to fire, making food appear, which was fascinating to see happen. It sort of faded into being, over the course of about five seconds, for each item. From what Hannah could tell, large amounts weren’t much harder than tiny ones.
That day they were having fruit, as well as eggs, and French toast, which came into being already prepared. They didn’t really need the fires for it at all, given that. They also had maple syrup to go with it. The fake kind, so she skipped it, eating her portion plain.
“Thanks, Kara. This is really good.” It was perfectly done, after all. Made of carbon from the air, but on her plate it was real food.
Several of the others, almost everyone, chimed in then, giving thanks, since they weren’t savages. Those who didn’t speak, mainly had their mouths full, so nodded. There was a bit of waving, which was probably polite enough.
Vidya, looking tired, smiled gently.
“So, what’s the plan for today?” For some reason, instead of looking at Max, or Carl, the woman locked eyes with her.
Hannah did it back, then looked around the various fires. Not everyone seemed like a child, there, but a good chunk of them really did.
“We’re going to find the remaining fugitives and see if we can bring them in. Everyone will be with their mentor for the day, if possible. Clearly, if at all possible, don’t engage with the criminals. We’ll put the big teams on that part of things. For my part, I’m going to locate them and see if I can break the shield Hitoshi has up.”
Nate, looking fit and a bit annoyed, faked a grin.
“So, once again the rest of us just sit back and let everyone else do all the real work?”
The words had some nodding going on. It wasn’t just the kids doing it, either. Several of them were, though. She started to scramble, since that sounded boring, but noticed that Candice was doing the same thing, as Terry made a face and glared at the woman for being stupid.
“Nope. We aren’t all going in on the big movement, if we can help it, but we need to take over for everyone else. I’m going to see who needs backup, and farm you all out. This could be anything from getting the coffee, to actually fighting, so everyone stay ready. Clearly, as a responsible adult, I’ll try to hedge things toward the first part. A bunch of you are still in training, powers aside.”
Kara laughed.
“Yeah. Making food at people isn’t going to really do much, is it?”
It was a bit self-depreciating, but Luther handled it. Not even seeming like an asshole at all.
“Yeah, true enough, in a fight. There are also real food shortages happening, right now. We need you to be armed and ready to protect yourself, but also moving to where the need is worst and actually doing the work to keep people fed. A week isn’t enough training time, but we can’t afford a lot more for you.”
The words were followed up, by Death Princess.
“Each of you will have real work to do, soon. Molly and Cynthia, you’re with Wisp and Devya, on transport. Work that out, Merge. Null, you’re with me. We’re probably going in on the actual retrievals, so get ready for that. We need armor for him. Fast Kid and Timekeeper, you’re pulling slack, in the field, if anyone needs help. You, too, Weld. Alistair is on communications. Not just for us. For anyone in need. Work that with Damsel, if she can function after what she’s planning to do. That leaves…”
She looked at Meathead then, who spread his hands.
“The useless guy. I can run food around or something? Get people coffee and energy drinks?”
That got a nod, from Vidya, who clearly seemed angry over the idea. Max though, simply nodded.
“You’re slated to get healing powers. Like Linear here has? I’ll call your parents and see if that works for them. You might have to go directly into combat zones for that. Both of you. You’ll be attached to the transport crew, given that. Can I get the numbers? It’s early still.”
Meathead’s step-father had shut Hannah down hard and fast, when it came to anything good for the kid. Max had him agreeing that lame sounding healing powers, instead of something more martially oriented, was a good way to keep his step-son from getting too full of himself. From the side of the conversation she heard, the man once again managed to sound like a massive asshole.
Not just a little, either. Max only had to hint that healing might kind of make Liam feel inferior, instead of boosting his self-confidence, in order to get the other man to agree. Then, it was a step-father, which might have made a difference. Her own step-mother, Karen, was actually a lovely person, so Hannah didn't think it was part of the job description or anything.
Just the one guy, doing his best to tear down the happiness of the next generation. One kid at a time. Still, it took her five minutes, with the help of Molly, to make an amulet for Liam that both allowed him to heal, at the same level as Linear, as well as have defensive armor. It was energy based, but would show up as small translucent red scales, that rested directly on his skin, instead of a shield on his arm. The effect should be cool, if nothing else.
Once that was done, everyone just sat there, uncertain about what to do. There was an order to things, of course. So, with Vidya helping her, she went into a very deep mental state, and tried to find Hitoshi, and the others. There were four shielded areas, each in a different portion of New York, with what, she had to assume, were more attackers inside waiting to do something. Hiding.
Whatever the plan was, it didn't have anything to do with escaping. Not for the moment, at least. The domes of white static were all very still, in fact. Too much so. It hurt, but Hannah had done it before, so, tried to enter the hidden space. Pushing into it. Through the wall of pain. Her brain felt like it was both on fire and wanted to split in two, as she looked at who was inside of each of the locations.
“They’re… Empty. All of them. I… Wait… Okay… This freaking hurts. Only, I’m looking for Hitoshi. I’m being led here… So, they aren’t empty, they just look that way. He’s hiding, somehow.”
It wasn’t a short, or fun process, but after a while, Kate suggested she break the machine. That didn't show Hitoshi, the older Japanese man, but it did make it much easier to look for him.
“Ah… I think I have it. Okay, one of the people is using their power to hide them all. Physically, I think. That’s kind of impressive. They’re miles apart. So…”
Hannah was deep, and didn’t stop to think first, just focusing on the person making the bad guys vanish. On the good side, she managed to point first.
“Right there, in… ten seconds. Null?”
It was on the other side of the fire, and when the person popped into being, everyone there was either pointing a firearm at her, or holding up a hand, as if to use a power. Luther, being clever, yelled at the dark-haired woman. She had a buzz cut, and was thin. Also, there was no makeup on her face. She didn’t look hard though, just like she was making a certain lifestyle choice.
“Freeze! Do not move. Hold your fire everyone, but target her head. If she vanishes, shoot!”
“Don’t! I’m not doing anything!” The lady sounded panicked. Then, Null nodded, after moving his fingers around for a bit.
“I have her.”
Hannah smiled.
“Nice. We need transport then. Now, let’s see what else we can do here?” Her part of things, other than finding them in the first place, was, she decided, pretty much going to have to be taking the machinery that jammed psychic powers down. It hurt too much for her to keep going, after the last of them actually went on the fritz. It was interesting, but no one inside of the field seemed to notice it happening at all.
Alistair nodded.
“They noticed their friend vanishing. I’m on with The Society, and The Underdogs.”
Hannah noticed that Chloe wasn’t there. She probably hadn’t been, going back to work, as soon as something real started to happen. Missing a whole person like that wasn’t a good thing. She needed a list, if she was going to be working with other people like that.
A thing to go over, occasionally, to make certain no one was missing.
In the moment, Hannah either needed to get some pain medication, or an electric drill, so she could let the pressure out of her head. Before she could ask for anything like that, Al spoke again.
Using his words, because he was right there with them all.
“Liberty wants everyone to come in, if possible. We have the locations and Hyper-Gamma is tracking them, in real time. Only one group, the one with Hitoshi and Red Menace in it, is moving yet. They had Ella with them. The one who made them invisible.” He waved at the woman, who was still there, not moving. Whatever her power was, it wasn’t working at the moment, thankfully.
Hannah felt like crud on a cracker, but nodded and stood up.
“Right. We should do that then. Just, remember what I said, avoid actual combat, if possible. Let the professionals handle this for us.”
She didn’t sound glib, just tired, even if she was well enough rested. Breaking the machines had, she knew, really taken a lot out of her. Not that she wasn’t willing to suffer a bit more, to handle the situation at hand.
Molly opened up a portal to the HQ, which was much faster than teleporting everyone one at a time. They left the camp up, since they weren’t giving up on the training. Just using the current event as a way to get real world experience. Carefully.
They came into the front lobby, on the top floor of the building, which had June out of the conference room before Hannah could even wave at the woman. She did go a bit wide eyed when Max walked through, clearly understanding who he was. She waved at least, directly at the man, but didn’t pass out hugs.
“Thank you all for coming. We have teams standing by to engage.”
Hannah, grabbing her forehead, tried not to be a wimp.
“We can put some of them directly into holding cells? That…”
Alistair, being a good guy, ratted her out.
“Damsel is down, for at least a day. She nearly burned her brain, physically, taking the jammers down. We can still do the rest. Molly, you can open portals, for people to move in? Wisp and Agent Seven, you can do the thing with the cells, like we did yesterday?”
He wasn’t commanding, actually looking at everyone, to see if they were up for it. Clearly, he knew that Hannah really wasn’t. Not at the moment. She didn't love the idea of hanging back, while everyone else took risks, but it was true that she couldn’t really do much, just then.
Liberty nodded.
“That’s a great plan. We have seventeen targets?”
Luther, who had Ella in handcuffs, behind her back, as Null stood directly beside her, shook his head.
“Sixteen. We took one already. Damsel and Null did it. Their invisible friend here. That will make the rest of this a lot safer for us. Easier, too.”
Easier, as it turned out, didn’t mean easy, of course.
Chapter fifteen
Hannah blinked, as she walked out the front door of The Society building. Not because she was being attacked or anything. Actually, she was dressed in very casual clothing, and next to both Pyric and Hyper-Gamma. Just taking a walk, to get some air. Two of them didn’t really have a place in the rest of the day’s activities, and the telepathic girl was actually able to work and walk at the same time.
The reason Hannah was taken aback was that, as soon as they walked out, a crowd of at least a hundred people, some of them with black face masks and dark clothing, with occasional tie-dye showing like hippie ninjas, started to scream at them.
“Racists! Racist scum! ACAB!”
There was some chanting, and people tried to move at them, waving their fists or in some cases weapons, as if pretending they were going to physically attack. At least they feinted toward Aliza that way.
Hannah ducked her head and spoke, with decent volume to the two people with her.
“What’s this? I’m pretty sure that neither of you is racist… Unless… Aliza, do you have klan sympathies?” She was trying to defuse things, as the man on fire and the masked, dark skinned, woman both stopped walking.
Her poor joke got a snort from the woman, at least.
“Well, you know how it is… I love dressing up like a ghost. It isn’t that. It’s that the supervillains we took are about thirty percent non-white. So, you know, it isn’t about them killing people or robbing banks, it’s that we hate people based on skin color. Obviously. It’s not real, but they do this about once a month. After yesterday… well, about fifty of them died. The bad guys? That some of these people would be dead right now if that hadn’t happened won’t make an impact on them at all. On the good side, I can collect all their names, to put on my list of possible terrorists. I’m a telepath, after all.”
